Things have been busy here at Chez Kirks so I haven’t taken the time to write. I feel like I’m maxed out on technology between blogging, Facebook and now Twitter. Does anyone really care about my daily life? I wonder…

I’ve been trying to work some extra hours at the store so Steve and I can keep chipping away at our bills. It looks like another one will be paid off soon! It feels so good to look at our bulletin board and see all the “paid” signs we’ve posted. My personal goal is to be debt-free in seven years. At the rate we’re going, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Of course, working extra hours at the store means less time for metal work. I’ve been on a granulation kick lately and still have several designs I want to create. I’m also working on a catalog to send to galleries. I’ve had a few inquiries from new galleries and need to send them some photos and wholesale prices. Tomorrow I plan to finalize the photos I want and get the list to my photographer so I can get them on a disk. I’ve already done the catalog design layout so now I just have to figure out the wholesale prices for my granulation. That’s the hard part. There’s so much work involved that it’s hard to figure out a price that’s fair to me and the customer. If I use a normal formula of time+materials=price it makes the piece too expensive. So basically I lose money on my time, but that’s ok for now. Maybe when I’m famous I can charge what I really need to! Saturday I turned on the kiln for the first time in months and did a very little bit of enameling. I was excited to discover that the new kiln location meant I could peek inside the kiln through the top peephole, until I set my bangs on fire! I guess 1450 degrees is hotter than I realized.

I’ve been giving Weight Watchers another shot with slow, but steady, results. My personal goal is to lose 15 pounds, but I’d be happy with 5-7. The first two weeks I lost a total of 1.5 pounds so things are going quite slow. At least I didn’t gain 1.5 pounds! Tomorrow I weigh in for week three so I’ll see how I’m progressing. It’s been a tough week and I’ll just be glad if I didn’t gain. Last weekend I felt like I could eat anything that wasn’t nailed to the wall so I’m not sure how great my progress has been. But I’m not giving up and I think that’s the main goal here.

On a different note, has anyone found anything fashionable to buy this season?! I’ve found several nice things at work but I can’t afford them! I’m still searching for a pair of grey chinos (year #2) and haven’t found any that perfectly fit the bill. I’m waiting on a few items I special ordered and I’m getting impatient! I have some ultra-faded wide-leg jeans coming and a coral cotton sateen jacket on order but I have no idea when they’ll arrive. This is just a tough time of the year for fashion. One minute it’s hot and the next it’s cold. I thought I’d put away my sweaters and cashmere, but ended up dragging them out when the temperature dipped below 40. Oh well, at least it’s sunny right now!